Quote:
Originally Posted by gmd2003
Hey guys as some of you know I have done a lot of modifications to my ESS supercharged car to make it more track worthy over the past several years. I had recently figured out I needed bigger injectors,a bigger oil cooler over the 525 one, and more radiator. After getting the engine sorted I refocused on the chassis and installed a cage and chassis reinforcement with MCS 2 ways for my suspension. Unfortunately, on my first outing with the new cage and suspension after setting a new street tire PB my motor went. Turns out the bolts to my vibration damper sheared off at 150mph and the resulting vibrations took off all my belts , lost cooling, power steering , and alternator going into turn 1 at 150 mpg GPS  . Internally the bearings (rod and mains took a beating, the intake cam bolts backed out , the timing chain became loose , and the crank was heavily scarred. The following pics show the carnage well. You can clearly see where the timing chain was moving around and dug into the oil pick up. Interestingly the motorsport bearings used did not show increasing lead on an oil analysis and appears to not contain lead. So for the newer replacement bearings it looks like we can not count on that. I'd say most of the damage was acute in this case however.
So the end result is I am moving forward with a full rebuild, with the goal being reliability not peak power. I am doing the following build with Andrew Lang of Lang racing development.
1.) Mahle Power pack pistons stock compression ratio, stronger and slightly lighter than stock.
2.)Custom spec H type Carrillo rods, able to hold 650hp yet slightly lighter than stock and accept the wider rod bearing used for my build.
3.) Carrillo pins
4.) Stage 3 head work for SC application
5.) Modified crank to accept a wider rod bearing ( correction of the stock weakness of the S54. You can read more about this on Lang Racing Developments website.
6.) Iconel valves for better heat management.
7.) Upgraded valve springs since i spend a lot of time at redline.
8.) VAC modified OEM oil pump.
9.) Everything else for the rebuild will be OEM per Andrew's recs.
Transmission /clutch.
1.) I am getting the transmission rebuilt with REM polished internals by Dan Fitzgerald of Diffsonline. This will greatly improve shifting speed as it was pretty worn and getting very notchy at redline. Also should slightly reduce drivetrain losses .
2.) After my bad light weight flywheel vibration issue which i believe set events in motion for this failure I am going with a new Dual mass flywheel.
3.) I was able to procure from Sachs Motorsport Germany , a SACHS racing clutch that was designed for the stock dual mass ! It holds an extra 100 NM over the stock clutch and is the only option that was made to work with the OEM dual mass.
Its a ton of work but I am very excited to get everything put back to together. Feel free to ask any questions and i will update with build photos as they come in to me.
Cheers
G |
I rebuilt my engine before what happened to you happens to me as part of my engine bulletproofing:
- extra 20% oil flow VAC OEM oil pump
- C300 vanos exhaust hub
- Dr. vanos noise reduction full kit
- 10.9 grade Vanos bolts
- WPC Rod Bearings
- ARP head studs ARP2000
- ARP rod bolts
- And everything else OEM (gasket kits and such)
I also found that the 10w-60 Castrol is too thick for my spirited driving even in 30 degrees Celsius summers so i switched to Mobil1 0W-40. I think you should do the same after installing the greater flow oil pump, especially with the bigger oil cooler and more efficient radiator.
Here are my rod bearings with Castrol TWS 10w-60 and 40K miles of spirited street driving.
I was amazed that with your tracking the engine lasted that long with a supercharger. Normally the NA S54 have the same problems when tracked like you do, It seems to me that the supercharger did not shorten its life one bit.